Morro Bay

 We were excited to get back to the beautiful Pacific Ocean and stay at the seaside town of Morro Bay. This small town has a giant rock (Morro Rock!) which is a 576 foot high volcanic plug (similar to Devils Tower in WY) that you can drive to and walk around but no climbing. Peregrine falcons call that rock home.

The Navy built a base here in WWII and subsequently built out the breakwaters around Morro Rock to protect their base.  There’s a neat maritime museum which has ships and submersibles you can walk around and peer into, along with a movie to watch.

 

PG&E built a power plant here in the 1950s and its three stacks are quite the industrial landmark in town.  The plant closed in 2014 and there is talk of converting the building to a battery storage facility. Residents are divided.

 

Abalone, those beautiful irridescent shells seen in jewelry and knick knack shops, was a big industry here until they were overfished and declined dramatically. Now the town has an oyster aquaculture farm where we watched loads of oysters harvested at the Morro Bay Oyster Co.  We hung out and watched these otters and their otter babies float blissfully in the sun.

 

We loved the small town feel, the prime walkability, super mild climate and all of the kitschy stores selling t-shirts and souvenirs.  We had amazing clam chowder, calamari steak, fish & chips and fish tacos. Keeping this one on our list of places to return!

Pinnacles and San Lorenzo Park

 We had a campsite booked at Pinnacles National Park but the CalTrans website advised us that our motorhome would be too long to easily get into and out of the road leading into the park so we pivoted and stayed in King City. It was such a great campground, right on the Salinas River, and there was NOBODY there.  We love the feeling of freedom and serenity when we are camping.

 

Pinnacles actively monitors and tracks the California condor population, and we saw plenty. One of the coolest features within the park are the many talus caves you can hike through.  Talus caves are created when boulders slide down the mountain and become trapped in a crevasse. 

 

Pinnacles has an east entrance and a west entrance, but no road connecting the two sides. We explored the east side on a Sunday and the west side on a Monday. Caves are found on both sides and we were having much fun with our amateur spelunking!

So strong!

Biking at Coyote Hills

 Our bike ride around Coyote Hills was exciting and beautiful. The trails we rode were paved but that didn’t stop me from picking up a nasty goathead which flattened my tire.  If you’re keeping track, that’s four out of four tires that have gone flat on our new bikes.  Bleh.

 

We still enjoyed the scenery on our way back to camp to fix the tires.

East Bay all day

 We secured a spot at the new Dumbarton Quarry campground in Fremont, CA for 10 whole days! We wanted to spend some quality time with friends and family in the area and this was the perfect location.

 

This is a great campground, 2 years old with full amenities, having been rennovated from an old quarry which excavated rock base since the 1950s. It’s the first urban campground built in the SF Bay area in over 30 years, and it’s adjacent to the terrific Coyote Hills park with tons of hiking and biking trails.

  

 

Hiking around the park led me to peaks overlooking these salt evaporation ponds and the entire southern part of the San Francisco Bay.  For a campground right on the highway and within spitting distance of both SFO and Oakland’s airport, it was fairly quiet.

 

We saw tons of wildlife - the ground squirrels drove Mack bonkers! The rabbits came out at night, along with the owl.  Lots of birds chirped all day long.  The East Bay Park District has planted drought-resistant trees and shrubs including my favorite hardy rosemary.

 

I spent a day with my cousin, her daughter and my aunt and uncle at the nearby Ardenwood Historic Farm. The farm has been continuously working since the late 1800s, and on this day, the staff dressed in period costume and gave a fun tour. We fed the chickens and the goats and sheep corn which was grown on-site.

 

Can’t wait for our next East Bay trip!